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Official Awards of 70th Venice Film Festival; SACRO GRA by Gianfranco Rosi Wins Golden Lion for Best Film | VIDEO

Venice International Film Festival

Gianfranco Rosi was awarded the GOLDEN LION for Best Film for SACRO GRA at the 70th Venice Film Festival

The documentary SACRO GRA by Gianfranco Rosi (Italy, France) was awarded the GOLDEN LION for Best Film at the 70th Venice Film Festival, and the GRAND JURY PRIZE went to JIAOYOU by Tsai Ming-liang (Chinese Taipei, France). In SACRO GRA, Gianfranco Rosi travelled over two years in a minivan and filmed life on Rome’s giant ring road—the Grande Raccordo Anulare, or GRA, to discover the invisible worlds and possible futures harbored in this area of constant turmoil.

Official Awards of the 70th Venice Film Festival

GOLDEN LION for Best Film to:
SACRO GRA by Gianfranco Rosi (Italy, France)

SILVER LION for Best Director to:
Alexandros Avranas for the film MISS VIOLENCE (Greece)

GRAND JURY PRIZE to:
JIAOYOU by Tsai Ming-liang (Chinese Taipei, France)

COPPA VOLPI
for Best Actor:
Themis Panou
in the film MISS VIOLENCE by Alexandros Avranas (Greece)

COPPA VOLPI
for Best Actress:
Elena Cotta
in the film VIA CASTELLANA BANDIERA by Emma Dante (Italy, Switzerland, France)

MARCELLO MASTROIANNI AWARD
for Best Young Actor or Actress to:
Tye Sheridan
in the film JOE by David Gordon Green (US)

AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY to:
Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
for the film PHILOMENA by Stephen Frears (United Kingdom)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE to:
DIE FRAU DES POLIZISTEN by Philip Gröning (Germany)

LION OF THE FUTURE – “LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS” VENICE AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM to:
WHITE SHADOW by Noaz Deshe(Italy, Germany, Tanzania)
VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM CRITICS’ WEEK

ORIZZONTI AWARDS

the ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST FILM to:
EASTERN BOYS by Robin Campillo (France)

the ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR to:
Uberto Pasolini for the film STILL LIFE (United Kingdom, Italy)

the SPECIAL ORIZZONTI JURY PRIZE to:
RUIN by Michael Cody and Amiel Courtin-Wilson (Australia)

the SPECIAL ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR INNOVATIVE CONTENT to:
MAHI VA GORBEH by Shahram Mokri (Iran)

the ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM to:
KUSH by Shubhashish Bhutiani (India)

VENEZIA CLASSICI AWARDS

the VENEZIA CLASSICI AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY ON CINEMA to:
DOUBLE PLAY: JAMES BENNING AND RICHARD LINKLATER by Gabe Klinger (USA, Portugal, France)

the VENEZIA CLASSICI AWARD FOR BEST RESTORED FILM to:
LA PROPRIETÀ NON È PIÙ UN FURTOby Elio Petri (Italy, France)

EUROPEAN SHORT FILM 2013 – EFA AWARD to:
HOUSES WITH SMALL WINDOWSby Bülent Öztürk (Belgium)

GOLDEN LION FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT 2013
William Friedkin

JAEGER-LECOULTRE GLORY TO THE FILMMAKER
Ettore Scola

PERSOL AWARD
Andrzej Wajda

L’ORÉAL PARIS PER IL CINEMA AWARD
Eugenia Costantini

http://youtu.be/YMqgHM_MgMU

images via flickr | Venice Film Festival
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New Indie Films, Documentaries in Theaters This Weekend Friday September 6

News

The good news about this first full September weekend is that there are MANY indie, foreign, and documentary releases that are being released, and most of them look interesting (particularly the documentaries). The bad news is that most of them are debuting in just a single theater, so you might have to wait a bit before you can see them in a theater in your area. However, some of them have a VOD release on the same day, so if you don’t mind watching it in the comfort of your own home (and who doesn’t?), you’re not out of luck!

SALINGER (Documentary)

Nearly every high school student is assigned The Catcher in the Rye in English class, and many remain profoundly affected by the novel. However, it’s well know that its author, J.D. Salinger, wrote only a handful of other works before spending most of his life out of the public eye. Salinger the documentary explores the life of one of the best-selling authors of all time who was only known by his closest friends. The big story here is that the documentary purports that Salinger has new novels and stories set to be released over the next several years — only time will tell about that, I guess!

ADORE

This drama puts a new spin on “awkward” when lifelong middle-aged best friends played by Naomi Watts and Robin Wright fall for each other’s sons and begin secret affairs. Originally titled Two Mothers, the film is bound to be controversial with audiences. As for me, I just wish my mother had a friend who looked like Naomi Watts! After initial strong buzz, the film has received mostly negative recent reviews — mostly focusing on the dialogue.

HELL BABY

From the Reno 911 crew comes this low-budget comedy about a woman who gives birth to, well, a demonic baby. The film is actually made up of various absurd situations in New Orleans involving the baby, exorcisms, and so on. If anything it has to be funnier than Scary Movie 5, right?

WINNIE MANDELA

Though the upcoming Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom starring Idris Elba has gotten a lot of praise, sneaking into theaters before it is Winnie Mandela, a biopic about Nelson Mandela’s wife. Winnie is played by Jennifer Hudson and Nelson is played by Terrence Howard, and while Nelson Mandela obviously remains a major figure in history early reviews of Winnie Mandela have not been kind at all.

RED OBSESSION

On the surface, Red Obsession appears to be a documentary about wine. However, Red Obession is actually about the economics of supply and demand and how that can destroy a traditional industry. To be specific, the documentary focuses on the last several years in the Bordeaux wine industry after wine became a fad among newly wealthy people in China. The result? These Chinese millionaires cause wine prices to skyrocket as they buy every bottle they can find. I caught this during the Tribeca Film Festival and have eagerly awaited for someone else I know to see it so we could talk about the implications.

TOUCHY FEELY

This family drama about physical contact made the festival rounds after premiering at Sundance but never really picked up much buzz despite its familiar cast (Rosemarie DeWitt, Allison Janney, Ron Livingston, Scoot McNairy, Ellen Page, and Josh Pais). Director Lynn Shelton’s films are usually very subtle, so if you’ve liked her previous movies like Humpday and You Sister’s Sister you’ll likely enjoy this too.

A TEACHER

I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but it seems to me that there’s a new “teacher sleeping with student” scandal in the newspaper every week. A Teacher is a drama about that situation, in which a Texas high school teacher (portrayed by Lindsay Burdge) has an affair with one of her students… causing her life to spin out of control. It’s already available on VOD and various On Demand outlets, though poor reviews might steer you away.

MY FATHER AND THE MAN IN BLACK (Documentary)

This documentary is about a film producer who discovered that his estranged father had a deep friendship and business relationship with his client, the famous country singer/hell-raiser Johnny Cash. Though it is an interesting investigative film, I thought it didn’t focus enough on the main draw here, Johnny Cash, and the “recreations” of real events were awkward. However, fans of Cash and his music will likely enjoy it.

GOOD OL’ FREDA (Documentary)

Just when you thought everything that could have ever been said about the Beatles had been said already, Good Ol’ Freda finds another way to tell the story. The documentary focuses on Freda Kelly, who served as the Beatles’ officially secretary and fan club manager. She remained close friends with the Beatles throughout the band’s existence, bearing witness to all of the legendary moments that defined the band’s history.

FIRE IN THE BLOOD (Documentary)

There have been a number of documentaries about the questionable practices of pharmaceutical companies and others about the early years of the AIDS health crisis (most notably How to Survive a Plague). Fire in the Blood combines both topics and looks at how pharmaceutical companies were slow to develop and release AIDS drugs in the early years of the disease and how people came together to change that. It seems like a thematic tie-in to the upcoming Dallas Buyers Club.

OTHER NOTABLE WEEKEND INDIE, FOREIGN & DOCUMENTARY RELEASES:

POPULAIRE

I AM BREATHING

THE ULTIMATE LIFE

BOUNTY KILLER

SNAKE AND MONGOOSE

BUTCHER BOYS

MISSION PARK

SUGAR

36 SAINTS

AMERICAN MILKSHAKE

IL FUTURO (THE FUTURE)

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SAVING MR. BANKS will Open, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS to Close AFI FEST 2013

AFI FEST

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

The North American Premiere Gala of Disney’s SAVING MR. BANKS will open AFI FEST 2013 on Thursday, November 7, and the World Premiere Opening Weekend Gala of Sony Picture Classics’ FOXCATCHER on Friday, November 8 will launch a lineup of independent and auteur films that will screen over the course of the festival from November 7-14, 2013.

SAVING MR. BANKS, starring Academy Award®-winning actress Emma Thompson and AFI Life Achievement Award recipient and Academy Award®-winning actor Tom Hanks, will have its North American Premiere on Thursday, November 7 as the Opening Night Gala. Inspired by true events, SAVING MR. BANKS is the extraordinary, untold story of how Walt Disney’s classic MARY POPPINS made it to the screen – and the testy relationship between the legendary Walt Disney and author P.L. Travers that almost derailed it. John Lee Hancock (THE BLIND SIDE) is the director, and Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith wrote the screenplay. SAVING MR. BANKS also stars Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, Bradley Whitford, Annie Rose Buckley, Ruth Wilson, B.J. Novak, Rachel Griffiths, Kathy Baker and Colin Farrell.

FOXCATCHER, a psychological drama directed by Academy Award® nominee Bennett Miller (MONEYBALL) and starring Golden Globe® winner Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Academy Award®nominee Mark Ruffalo, Academy Award® winner Vanessa Redgrave and Sienna Miller, will have its World Premiere on Friday, November 8 as the Opening Weekend Gala. The film was written by E. Max Frye and Academy Award® nominee Dan Futterman. FOXCATCHER tells the story of Olympic Gold Medal-winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Tatum), who sees a way out from the shadow of his more celebrated wrestling brother Dave (Ruffalo) and a life of poverty when he is summoned by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont (Carell) to move onto his estate and train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Desperate to gain the respect of his disapproving mother, du Pont begins “coaching” a world-class athletic team and, in the process, lures Mark into dangerous habits, breaks his confidence and drives him into a self-destructive spiral. Based on actual events, FOXCATCHER is a gripping and profoundly American story of fragile men who pinned their hopes for love and redemption on a desperate obsession for greatness that was to end in tragedy.

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, written and directed by Academy Award® winners Joel and Ethan Coen (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN), was produced by Scott Rudin and Joel and Ethan Coen and will be the Closing Night Gala on Thursday, November 14. The film stars Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund and Justin Timberlake and follows a week in the life of a young folk singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Llewyn Davis (Isaac) is at a crossroads. Guitar in tow, huddled against the unforgiving New York winter, he is struggling to make it as a musician against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, some of them of his own making. Brimming with music performed by Isaac, Timberlake and Mulligan (as Llewyn’s married Village friends), as well as Marcus Mumford and Punch Brothers, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS – in the tradition of O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? – is infused with the transportive sound of another time and place. An epic on an intimate scale, it represents the Coen Brothers’ fourth collaboration with multiple-Grammy® and Academy Award®-winning music producer T Bone Burnett. Marcus Mumford is the Associate Music Producer. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS recently won the Grand Prix at the 2013 Cannes International Film Festival.

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10 Fellows Selected for Film Independent’s 2013 Screenwriting Lab

Industry

FORBIDDEN STEPS by Iram Parveen Bilal

Film Independent announced the screenwriters selected for its 14th annual Screenwriting Lab, sponsored by the Writers Guild of America, West. The Screenwriting Lab is an intensive five-week program designed to help writers improve their craft, and take their current scripts to the next level in a nurturing yet challenging creative environment.

Under the tutelage of the Lab Mentors, the Fellows are advised on the craft and business of screenwriting, and are also introduced to established screenwriters, producers and film professionals who serve as guest speakers and one-on-one Advisors. Writer/Director Robin Swicord (The Jane Austen Book Club, Memoirs of a Geisha) and Writer Jeff Stockwell (Bridge to Terabithia, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) return as this year’s Mentors. Guest Speakers include Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12) and Sian Heder (Orange is the New Black).

The Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television (SFTV) has a unique partnership with Film Independent. For the second year in a row, Film Independent and SFTV have partnered on the LMU SFTV Screenwriting Fellowship. Out of the 10 fellows selected, Eli Ibok, who is also an LMU alum, will be awarded a $10,000 LMU SFTV grant to develop his script, Trauma, through the Screenwriting Lab.

The Screenwriting Lab is provided free to invited screenwriters, who upon acceptance become Film Independent Fellows, receiving year-round support, including access to Film Independent’s annual film education offerings and the Los Angeles Film Festival. In addition, Lab Fellows are eligible to join the Independent Writers Caucus of the Writers Guild of America, West. Recent projects developed through the Lab include Robbie Pickering’s Natural Selection, which garnered multiple awards at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival, Beth Schacter’s Normal Adolescent Behavior, Scott Prendergast’s Kabluey, Philip Flores’ and Max Doty’s The Wheeler Boys, Suzi Yoonessi’s Dear Lemon Lima, Erin Cassidy and Bruce Pavalon’s We Are the Mods, and Minh Nguyen-Vo’s Buffalo Boy, which was Vietnam’s entry to the 2006 Academy Awards.

The 2013 Screenwriters Lab participants and their projects are:

1. Broad Street Diner – Three elderly male friends who meet daily at a neighborhood diner, find that 70 is the new 40 as they deal with friendship, new love, sickness and fatherhood, making it hard for them to retire from “Life.”

Fred Thomas Jr. the seven time 2012 N.A.A.C.P award nominee and winner of Best Director, Best Playwright and Best Producer for his play12’ x 9’ is an alumnus of Lincoln University, where he received his Bachelors in Journalism before attending Temple University and receiving his Masters in Film and Media Arts. To date, Thomas is the producer of the feature The Bachelor Party for Image Entertainment, director and a producer of the film 24 Hour Love, director/writer on the web series The Taboo Diaries, director on Moms the web series, and the co-writer/producer/director for the stage play What Would Divas Do? Divalogues, for TV One’s Network show R&B Divas L.A.

2. Forbidden Steps – A Muslim daughter struggles with the divisions between her passion for dancing and the will of her family.

Iram Parveen Bilal was raised in Nigeria and Pakistan, and is conscious of the rare opportunity and voice she has on the filmmaking playground. Having directed internationally recognized, award-winning short films, Josh is her feature debut that just released theatrically nationwide in Pakistan. Josh has been commissioned by Channel 4 and is in the process of international distribution. Other feature projects in development have received attention by IFP, The Academy’s Nicholl Writing Fellowship, Mumbai Mahindra Sankalan Lab, Film Independent and Women In Film. A Film Independent Fellow, Bilal has participated in Film Independent’s Project Involve, Directing Lab and Screenwriting Lab. Prominent awards and honors include the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, Stark Special Project Scholarship, Mabel Beckman Leadership Award, Paul Studenski Fellowship and the Dean’s Cup. She is an honors graduate of CalTech and the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC. More on www.iramparveenbilal.com.

3. Jamie and Jackie – Jamie and Jackie is the story of a small time thief who lives the life of a ghost until the day he’s invited to play a strange game with a woman he meets at a hotel.

Tarik Karam is a filmmaker based in New York City who has worked side by side with director Stephen Daldry for the past six years. He co-produced the Oscar nominated Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close while also serving as Second Unit Director. Previously, Tarik collaborated with Daldry on the Oscar-nominated The Reader, serving as Second Unit Director and Associate Producer. Most recently, Tarik completed a short film entitled “ZZZZZZZ,” about two sleepwalkers in love, which premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival and is set to play this year’s Austin Film Festival. Tarik graduated from the American Film Institute (AFI) with an MFA in Film Direction. He is a proud member of the DGA and his work can be found at www.tarikkaram.com.

4. Jane – After her sister’s fatal back alley abortion, Teresa, a bright, but naïve 1960’s college student, joins “Jane,” an underground group who break the law and risk their lives to help women find access to safe abortions.

Natalija Vekic is a screenwriter and director whose short films “The Sacred Heart” and “The Girl with the Pearl Suspended” have screened at the New York Underground Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and Mill Valley International Film Festival. Natalija won a Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival for her short film “Lost & Found,” was the recipient of the prestigious Princess Grace Award in film and a San Francisco Individual Arts Commission Grant.

She is a co-producer on the documentary Strand: A Natural History of Cinema, directed by long time collaborator Christian Bruno. Strandreceived the inaugural Film Independent Fast Track HBO Fellowship and was selected to participate in the Documentary Lab at Film Independent.

Vekic is a recent graduate of the UCLA MFA screenwriting program where she spent countless sleepless nights writing screenplays and TV pilots. She received the Executive Board Award Fellowship, a UCLA Graduate Fellowship and was one of eight writers selected to work with Academy Award-winning screenwriter and UCLA alum Dustin Lance Black in a feature screenwriting seminar. She researched and wroteJane, which was inspired by a brave group of feminists in Chicago who broke the law to make sure women had access to safe abortions.

Vekic has a special place in her screenplays for runaways, outlaws and all the beautiful misfits who make the world so amazing. Family turmoil, forgiveness and how the past always manages to creep into the present — are at the heart of many of her scripts.

5. Love on the Tundra – Seemingly together, type-A Emily becomes obsessed with trying to “save” mentally ill Jacob, but in the process of helping him get better, begins to psychologically unravel herself.

Dana Turken is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker whose work lives somewhere between the real and the surreal, the dramatic and the comically absurd. She has directed eight short films and one play, through the Francis Ford Coppola One Act Festival. Dana grew up in Detroit and spent her youth training as a dancer. She studied semiotics at Brown University, directing at Prague’s FAMU Film Academy, and received her MFA in directing from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television. A member of the International Cinematographers Guild, she spent five years in New York working in the camera department on feature films, episodic television, music videos, and commercials, before moving to Los Angeles to pursue her MFA.

While at UCLA, Turken’s short film, “Love on the Tundra,” screened at the Seattle International Film Festival and the Athens Film and Video Festival, among others. Her film, “Arthur and the Bunnies,” premiered at the Palm Springs International ShortFest, and went on to screen at numerous venues, including, Comic-Con, Camerimage, Mill Valley Film Festival, Cucalorus, REDCAT, and the Columbus International Film Festival, where it won the Best of Festival award. In 2012, she was a directing fellow in Film Independent’s Project Involve. She recently directed a short screwball comedy, produced by Film Independent and sponsored by the Lincoln Motor Company and Vanity Fair. Turken is currently writing a script for independent producer Bergen Swanson about the 1960s battle between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs.

6. The Murch – An extremely smart boy from the Midwest moves to the projects of North Carolina and learns that there is a high price for trying to fit in.

Elliott Williams was born in Seattle, but claims New York, North Carolina and Los Angeles as home. He has lived on both coasts, but he’s almost lived in half the states in the US. He began his corporate career as a management professional in the Fortune 10 Company GE Capital before moving on to pharmaceutical sales and management. Williams is also an Emmy award-winning producer who began his career behind the camera with a bit of good fortune. Williams’ first professional offering was the 2010 Official Sundance Selection Night Catches Us, which was also a winner at the Seattle International Film Festival and nominated for Best First Feature at The Spirit Awards before being distributed by Magnolia Pictures. He went back to school and earned a Master’s degree in Producing from the American Film Institute (AFI) and, while there, he produced the award-winning comedy web series #nitTWITS based on funny tweets. Upon completion of school, his thesis film, “Usagi-san,” won The Grand Jury Prize at the Ivy Film Festival, a Student Emmy Award and a BAFTA-LA Special Jury Prize. He also began writing at AFI and The Murch is his first screenplay. Elliott is very happy and proud to be a part of Film Independent’s Screenwriting Lab and can’t wait to see this film reach its full potential.

7. Spa Night – Struggling to escape his crumbling family life, a closeted Korean-American teenager follows his desires and finds more than he bargains for at the Korean spa.

Andrew Ahn is a Korean-American filmmaker born and raised in Los Angeles. His short film “Dol (First Birthday)” premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and has screened at numerous other festivals and venues around the world, including Lincoln Center, REDCAT, and the Los Angeles Film Festival. The film received the Outfest Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Short Film. An alumnus of Film Independent’s Project Involve, Ahn also participated in the Sundance Screenwriters Lab in June 2013 with his feature screenplay Spa Night. The project also received a Sundance Institute Cinereach Feature Film Fellow grant. Ahn is an alumnus of Film Independent’s Project Involve. He graduated from Brown University with a degree in English and received an MFA in Film Directing from the California Institute of the Arts.

8. Sugar – When a seasoned war correspondent is executed in a fancy Nairobi suburb, his 29 year-old lover is forced to confront corrupt politicians, Somali extremists and her own demons, in order to halt a coup d’état and expose the conspiracy behind his death.

A University of Chicago and AFI graduate born in New York and currently residing in Los Angeles, Thymaya Payne has directed a number of films including the short films “Apparent Horizon” (starring Peter Coyote), “Let’s Not and Say We Did,” and “Coup De Grace,” which premiered at the HBO Latino Film festival. In the summer of 2010 he completed his documentary film Love Limits, which was later released by Icarus films.

In 2008 Payne began a four-year journey to direct and produce an in-depth documentary about Somali piracy and its root causes calledStolen Seas. The film premiered at the Locarno Film festival and was awarded the Boccolino’ D’oro. Later, at the Palm Springs Film Festival,Stolen Seas won the John Schlesinger award for best Documentary. “A dangerous 90-minute immersion in a world where lawlessness applies to all sides” said Variety. The New York Times called the Stolen Seas “Magnificent.” Stolen Seas was theatrically released in early 2013.

9. Trauma – A veteran discharged after a spontaneous act of violence struggles to reorient himself to home town life and must face emotional scars resulting from a sexual assault he experienced in the military.

Edi Ibok wrote for online sites including IGN and Cracked.com and worked as a videographer and editor after graduating from Princeton University with a BA in Philosophy. While enrolled in Loyola Marymount University’s Graduate Program in Film and Television Production, he won the Cosgrove Family Endowment and LMU’s Oscar Micheaux Award. After earning his MFA, he photographed projects for the 18th Street Arts Center before his current job in distribution at Fox Home Entertainment.

10. Varenya – Varenya, a South Indian Hindu priest, accepts a young apprentice and is forced to question the doctrines of his religion.

Shripriya Mahesh is an Indian-born filmmaker based in San Francisco and New York City. Mahesh wrote and directed “The Color of Time,” a short film featuring Oscar nominees, James Franco and Jessica Chastain. The short is part of the collaborative feature film, Tar, which premiered at the Rome Film Festival. Her award-winning short films have played at the Palm Springs International ShortFest, the Rhode Island International Film Festival, the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival (Frameline) and dozens more. Her film, “Reprise”, won the Best Student Film Award at the 12th deadCenter Film Festival, the Best Short by a Woman award at the 9th Salento International Film Festival, and was a finalist for the 6th Iris Prize. Mahesh’s first feature, Varenya, has been selected for IFP’s Emerging Storyteller section and will participate in Independent Film Week, 2013. It has also been selected for Film Independent’s Screenwriting Lab, 2013. Mahesh had a successful career in Silicon Valley, ultimately managing a $400M business for eBay, before leaving the corporate world to dedicate herself to filmmaking. She is an MFA candidate at NYU’s Tisch Graduate Film Program, where she was awarded a Tisch School of the Arts Fellowship. She also earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

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Christoph Rainer’s REQUIEM FOR A ROBOT Wins 2013 RBC Emerging Filmmakers Competition at TIFF | WATCH FILM

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)

Christoph Rainer

RBC and the Toronto International Film Festival announced the winners of the 2013 RBC Emerging Filmmakers Competition. Christoph Rainer, Vienna, Austria is the national winner and received $20,000 prize. In Christoph Rainer’s film REQUIEM FOR A ROBOT, Rob, a worn out robot with a corrupt memory, drowns his sorrows of his ‘screwed’ existence in alcohol and asks himself the essential question: what did he do wrong?

NATIONAL WINNER: $20,000

Christoph Rainer, Vienna, Austria

REQUIEM FOR A ROBOT, Christophe Rainer

REQUIEM FOR A ROBOT – Tortured by a recurring nightmare, an alcoholic robot has nothing left but a corrupt memory. In order to find out what has happened, he returns to his creator.

http://youtu.be/uZEzO_3HK68

HONOURABLE MENTIONS: $5,000 each

Dan Popa, Montreal, Canada
TALES OF SANTA FE – A traveler shares his impressions of a city through a photographic journey into his fragmented past.

Kevan Funk, Vancouver, Canada
DESTROYER – A young athlete struggles with the weight of witnessing his fellow teammates commit an act of violence.

Each year, participants are provided a theme to guide their creative process and the theme for 2013 was Memory. The national winner and honourable mentions were selected from 16 submissions and then narrowed to five finalists by the jury panel. The other finalists were Rafael Balulu (Israel) and Mako Kamitsuna (U.S.).

“These winning films demonstrate the work of unique, emerging voices in filmmaking,” said Piers Handling, director and CEO, TIFF. “The Emerging Filmmakers Competition is a platform to share these voices and we are thrilled to partner with RBC once again on this initiative.”

“We look forward to seeing how up-and-coming filmmakers interpret, define and express the theme each year,” said Jennifer Tory, RBC’s regional president for Greater Toronto. “The winning films chosen this year represent the talent and creativity that make us proud to support TIFF and the RBC Emerging Filmmakers Competition.”

The RBC Emerging Filmmakers Competition is part of Talent Lab, a four-day intensive program at the Toronto International Film Festival that offers artistic development opportunities to a select group of emerging Canadian and international filmmakers.

Each filmmaker is provided with $500 cash to develop a one-to-five minute short film for the competition.

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James Gray, Richard Curtis, Paul Greengrass among Filmmakers and Shorts Program Lineup Confirmed for 2013 NYFF

New York Film Festival

Joanna Hogg’s Exhibition

Richard Curtis, Paul Greengrass, Agnieszka Holland and Frederick Wiseman have been selected to participate in the HBO Directors Dialogues and the popular HBO On Cinema conversation will feature James Gray at the upcoming 2013 New York Film Festival. The festival also announced the selection of Joanna Hogg and Fernando Eimbcke as the two filmmakers whose work will be screened and celebrated as NYFF’s Emerging Artists this year, as well as the selections for NYFF’s Shorts Programs.

The fifth edition of NYFF’s annual master class, HBO On Cinema, will feature James Gray (THE IMMIGRANT) speaking to NYFF Director of Programming and Selection Committee Chair, Kent Jones on Saturday, October 12 about his cinematic influences. Film clips will also be shown, spotlighting filmmakers and films that have inspired him, and continue to today.

The popular HBO Directors Dialogues return to the New York Film Festival with four diverse filmmakers, paired with a journalist or Selection Committee member as they discuss their careers, views on their own approach to making movies as well as the current state of the art of filmmaking. This year’s lineup will feature Paul Greengrass (CAPTAIN PHILLIPS) on Saturday, September 28; Frederick Wiseman (AT BERKELEY) on Sunday, September 29; Richard Curtis (ABOUT TIME) on Wednesday, October 2; and Agnieszka Holland (BURNING BUSH) on Saturday, October 5.

Co-Presented with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), NYFF’s Emerging Artists is the next step in FSLC and RBC’s combined efforts to promote and encourage the work of promising filmmakers by providing a spotlight on two enormously talented filmmakers, Fernando Eimbcke from Mexico and Joanna Hogg from England.

Eimbcke’s comedy CLUB SANDWICH (2013) deals with the fraught territory of puberty and separation anxiety as it follows the experiences of a teenage boy taking his first tentative (and furtive) steps into the uncharted waters of sex. NYFF will also screen Eimbcke’s prior two films, DUCK SEASON (2004), which screened previously at New Directors/New Films, and LAKE TAHOE (2008).

Hogg’s drama EXHIBITION (2013) is an intimate look at two married middle-aged artists that live and work in their unusual London home, at once labyrinth, battleground and refuge. Hogg’s films UNRELATED (2007) and ARCHIPELAGO (2010), both starring Tom Hiddleston will also be presented.

NYFF also announced today the films and filmmakers selected for this year’s Shorts Programs (4 in total). The selections are highlighted by films directed by returning NYFF alumni, including Miguel Gomes’s REDEMPTION (TABU, NYFF 2012) and João Pedro Rodrigues’s THE KING’S BODY (TO DIE LIKE A MAN, NYFF 2009), as well as Lav Diaz, whose short film PROLOGUE TO THE GREAT DESAPARECIDO will join his feature, NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY in the NYFF lineup. Nicolas Saada’s AUJOURD’HUI stars Academy Award nominee Bérenice Béjo from THE ARTIST (NYFF 2011) and includes an appearance by documentary filmmaking legend (with frequent NYFF appearances to his credit) Frederick Wiseman.

Additional notable directors with films in the Shorts Programs include Michael Almereyda (HAMLET, NADJA) with his short, THE MAN WHO CAME OUT ONLY AT NIGHT; Damien Chazelle (GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH) with his film, WHIPLASH; and David Kestin, who has two films set to be screened (THE AIR MATTRESS and OPEN HOUSE).

HBO DIRECTORS DIALOGUES

Paul Greengrass
With films like Bloody Sunday, United ’93 and the new Captain Phillips, Paul Greengrass has established himself as one of the masters of reality-based cinematic fiction. With The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, he brought the immediacy of those films to the suspense genre. We’ll discuss the fine points of the geopolitical thriller, and the art of bringing history to life on the screen.

Frederick Wiseman
Frederick Wiseman is not just one of our greatest documentary filmmakers, he’s one of our greatest filmmakers, period. From his 1967 debut Titicut Follies to the present, Wiseman has taken his camera into Metropolitan Hospital in New York, a Benedictine monastery in Michigan, Madison Square Garden, the Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris, and the University of California at Berkeley among many other places and institutions, and fashioned vast cinematic frescoes of the ways we live, die, work, grieve, and create.

Agnieszka Holland
Agnieszka Holland has a career like no one else’s. She studied cinema in Czechoslovakia in the late 60s and was imprisoned for six weeks for her participation in the student uprising that followed the Soviet invasion after Prague Spring (dramatized in her extraordinary mini-series Burning Bush, showing in this year’s NYFF). She began working for Krzysztof Zanussi and Andrzéj Wajda, and she has slowly built an extraordinary body of work, including Europa Europa and Olivier, Olivier, which opened the 1992 NYFF; her stunning 1993 adaptation of The Secret Garden; the Oscar-nominated In Darkness (2012); and numerous episodes of some of the best of episodic television, including “The Wire” and “The Killing.”

Richard Curtis
Without a doubt, writer/director Richard Curtis has become the most formidable presence in modern comedy. This is the man who wrote The Black Adder, Mr. Bean, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Bridget Jones’ Diary, and has thus far written and directed Love Actually, Pirate Radio and now About Time.

HBO ON CINEMA

James Gray
From Little Odessa in 1994 to his new film The Immigrant, James Gray has lovingly crafted five deeply personal films one image and emotion at a time. He is a New York director through and through, and he has shown us people and places within the city that one rarely sees in movies. This marks Gray’s first visit to the New York Film Festival, and we are very happy that he has agreed to talk with us about the films that have formed him and his own unique approach to movies.

EMERGING ARTISTS

JOANNA HOGG

EXHIBITION (2013) 110 min
Director: Joanna Hogg
Country: UK
Joanna Hogg’s exactingly minimal and intimately character-driven portrait of a married middle-aged couple – both artists – living and working in their unusual London home, at once labyrinth, battleground and refuge.

ARCHIPELAGO (2010) 114 min
Director: Joanna Hogg
Country: UK
A group stay on the island of Tresco off of Sicily, animated by resentments, jealousies, upheavals and revelations that will ring true to anyone who has ever spent a vacation with their family. Tom Hiddleston, a mainstay of Hogg’s films, is the discontented son at a crossroad in his life, at odds with his mother (Kate Fahy) and sister (Lydia Leonard). His priorities are re-set by landscape artist Christopher Baker, who appears as himself, and the pungent, wondrous landscape.

UNRELATED (2007) 105 min
Director: Joanna Hogg
Country: UK
Middle-aged, discontented Anna (Kathryn Worth) decides to spend her summer holiday apart from her husband, in Tuscany with her friends. As the days go by, she finds herself more attuned to their teenaged children (Tom Hiddleston and his sister Emma). Hogg’s 2007 debut established her right away as an unusual artist with a place-specific approach to drama.

FERNANDO EIMBCKE

CLUB SANDWICH (2013) 82 min
Director: Fernando Eimbcke
Country: Mexico
The new low-key, slow-burn comedy from Fernando Eimbcke, venturing into the fraught territory of puberty and separation anxiety, focuses on a teenage boy taking his first tentative (and furtive) steps into the uncharted waters of sex.

LAKE TAHOE (2008) 84 min
Director: Fernando Eimbcke
Country: Mexico
In this whimsically wayward comedy with a poignant twist, Eimbcke’s ’scope camera follows the meanderings of Juan (Diego Cataño) through the sleepy streets of a small town as he searches for a spare part after crashing the family car.

DUCK SEASON (Temporada de patos) (2004) 90 min
Director: Fernando Eimbcke
Country: Mexico
Two 14 year olds are home alone for the day, with video games, soda and snacks—how bad can it get? Soon they have company: a teenage neighbor who wants to bake herself a birthday cake, and a thirtysomething pizza delivery man. Then the power goes out…

NYFF SHORTS PROGRAMS

Shorts Program 1: 102 min
THE AIR MATTRESS (2013) 9 min
Director: David Kestin
Country: USA
Sometimes a noisy neighbor isn’t so bad after all…

MY MIND’S OWN MELODY (2012) 29 min
Director: Josh Wakely
Country: Australia
A bright, musical world exists within the depths of a comatose state.

9 METER (2012) 17 min
Director: Anders Walter
Country: Denmark
Daniel believes that his record-breaking jumps are the cause of his mother’s health improvements, but he needs to find a way to do better.

OPEN HOUSE (2013) 11 min
Director: David Kestin
Country: USA
Worst birthday gift ever: find a NYC apartment ASAP.

SAMNANG (2013) 22 min
Director: Asaph Polonsky
Country: USA
Samnang works long hard nights at a donut shop. One day his steady and solitary routine is shaken by the arrival of another worker.

TRYOUTS (2013) 14 min
Director: Susana Casares
Country: USA
Nayla discovers that the only way to fit in as a cheerleader is to rebel.

Shorts Program 2: 97 min
BASICALLY (2013) 15 min
Director: Ari Aster
Country: USA
An actress provides a hilarious tour of her privileged but dysfunctional world.

BUTTER LAMP (La lampe au beurre de yak) (2013) 15 min
Director: Hu Wei
Country: France
Families of Tibetan nomads get their pictures taken against an array of exotic scenic backdrops.

CARNY (Animador) (2012) 20 min
Director: Fernanda Chicolet
Country: Brazil
Ligia’s psyche escapes the dullness of her daily routine at an amusement park in danger-filled dreams that betray the flip side of her passive nature.

FRAYED (2013) 9 min
Director: Georgia Oakley
Country: UK
Plagued by imaginary terrors, Freya cannot keep her demons at bay in this wild mix of live action and animation.

#POSTMODEM (2012) 12 min
Directors: Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva
Country: USA
A musical satire on preparing for the singularity, based on the theories of Ray Kurzweil.

SUBCONSCIOUS PASSWORD (2013) 11 min
Director: Chris Landreth
Country: Canada
Charles’ subconscious plays games with him as he tries to remember an acquaintance’s name.

UNCLE ŞEREF AND HIS SHADOW (Şeref Dayı ve Gölgesi Fragman) (2013) 15 min
Director: Buğra Dedeoğlu
Country: Turkey
In a moment of anger Şeref berates his shadow, which promptly walks out on him.

Shorts Program 3: 61 min
AUJOURD’HUI (2012) 8 min
Director: Nicolas Saada
Country: France
The end of the world as experienced by a young mother (played by Bérenice Béjo from THE ARTIST) in Paris. She finds herself face to face with a silent, menacing prophet played by the great documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman.

L’ASSENZA (2013) 20 min
Director: Jonathan Romney
Country: UK
A young man (Stephen Mangan) goes to see an Italian movie from the 60s with his wife (Amanda Ryan) and is confronted with a strange apparition; an extra, who appears to be his doppelganger, haunting the edges of the frame.

THE MAN WHO CAME OUT ONLY AT NIGHT (2013) 15 min
Director: Michael Almereyda
Country: USA
Michael Almereyda’s wry adaptation of Italo Calvino’s folktale, shot in the East Village in black and white, is about a man (James Ransone) who marries the youngest of three sisters (India Kotis), and shares a very strange secret with her on their wedding night.

WHIPLASH (2013) 18 min
Director: Damien Chazelle
Country: USA
In this wild and intense new film from the director of GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH, a young jazz drummer (Johnny Simmons) beats his brains out trying to please his unforgiving conservatory instructor (J.K. Simmons – no relation).

Shorts Program 4: 89 min

Three ingenious explorations of history and myth from a trio of NYFF Main Slate alumni.

REDEMPTION (2013) 26 min
Director: Miguel Gomes
Country: Portugal
1975: from a village in northern Portugal, a child writes to his parents in Angola. 2011: an old man in Milan remembers his first love. 2012: a new father in Paris talks to his baby daughter. 1977: in Leipzig, a woman prepares for her wedding day. Where and when did these four poor devils begin searching for redemption? Combining voiceover and image as brilliantly as he did in TABU (NYFF 2012), Miguel Gomes pairs suggestively edited archival material with bittersweet, wryly funny monologues that put their speakers in a surprising new light.

THE KING’S BODY (O Corpo de Afonso) (2013) 32 min
Director: João Pedro Rodrigues
Country: Portugal
Dom Afonso Henriques was Portugal’s first king, a figure whose legendary strength and much-vaunted sword have been subject to considerable myth making over the years. In this sly, playful investigation into the meaning of national identity, director João Pedro Rodrigues (TO DIE LIKE A MAN, NYFF 2009) stages a casting session of sorts for the king’s body. A group of muscle-bound men, stripping down against a green-screen backdrop, answer questions about the fabled past and the mundane realities of their lives. The results, by turns amusing and poignant, speak volumes about Portugal in the present day.

PROLOGUE TO THE GREAT DESAPARECIDO (2013) 31 min
Director: Lav Diaz
Country: Philippines
Andrés Bonifacio, the freedom fighter known as the father of the Philippine revolution, was executed by rival revolutionaries in 1897. His wife, Gregoria de Jesus, searched for his body in the mountains for 30 days. It was never found. The next feature by Lav Diaz — whose latest, NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY, is also a Main Slate presentation this year — concerns Bonifacio’s controversial death. Returning to his familiar palette of rich, deep black-and-white after the blazing colors of NORTE, this short film about the desperate quest of Bonifacio’s widow is both a haunting standalone work and a tantalizing preview of the film to come.
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Angelina Jolie, Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin and Piero Tosi to Receive the Academy’s Governors Awards

Awards

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present Honorary Awards to Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin and Piero Tosi, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Angelina Jolie. All four awards will be presented at the Academy’s 5th Annual Governors Awards on Saturday, November 16, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center.

“The Governors Awards pay tribute to individuals who’ve made indelible contributions in their respective fields,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “We couldn’t be more excited for this year’s honorees and look forward to bringing their peers and colleagues together to celebrate their extraordinary achievements.”

Lansbury has received three Academy Award® nominations for her supporting performances on film – the first in her 1944 feature debut in “Gaslight,” followed by “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1945) and “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962). Her numerous other credits include “The Long, Hot Summer,” “Blue Hawaii,” “The World of Henry Orient,” “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” “Death on the Nile” and “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” as well as voice work for the first animated feature to receive a Best Picture nomination, “Beauty and the Beast.”

Martin, who got his start in television, is a versatile actor, writer, comedian and musician who began to display the breadth of his big-screen talent as the screenwriter and star of the 1977 Oscar®-nominated short film “The Absent-Minded Waiter.” He wrote and starred in “The Jerk,” “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid,” “Three Amigos,” “Roxanne,” “L.A. Story,” “The Pink Panther” series and “Shopgirl,” which he adapted from his critically acclaimed book of the same name. His other acting credits include “All of Me,” “Parenthood,” “Father of the Bride” and “It’s Complicated.” He also is a three-time host of the Oscars®, most recently in 2010 with Alec Baldwin.

Tosi rose to prominence through his collaborations with Italian director Luchino Visconti on such films as “White Nights” and “Rocco and His Brothers,” and continued to work with him on several other features, including the Costume Design nominees “The Leopard,” “Death in Venice” and “Ludwig.” Tosi received two more nominations for his designs for “La Cage aux Folles” and “La Traviata.” His other notable credits include “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” a Foreign Language Film winner, and “Marriage Italian Style,” a Foreign Language Film nominee, both directed by Vittorio De Sica.

Jolie, who won an Oscar for her supporting performance in “Girl, Interrupted,” has been an impassioned advocate for humanitarian causes, traveling widely to promote organizations and social justice efforts such as the Prevent Sexual Violence Initiative. Staking out a career at the nexus of entertainment and philanthropy, Jolie has worked for a number of global advocacy groups including the Council on Foreign Relations and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for which she was appointed Special Envoy of High Commissioner António Guterres in 2012 after twelve years of service. Her dedication to these causes has also shaped her work in films that tackle global humanitarian issues including “A Mighty Heart” and her feature film directorial debut “In the Land of Blood and Honey.”

The Honorary Award, an Oscar statuette, is given “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.”

The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, also an Oscar statuette, is given “to an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.”

via press release
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12 Films to Compete in 2013 New Orleans Film Festival; Incl. FOREV, SEARCHING FOR BILL

New Orleans Film Festival

FOREV

The 24th annual New Orleans Film Festival, taking place at venues across New Orleans October 10th- October 17th, 2013, announced the Narrative and Documentary Competition feature film selections that will compete for the grand jury prize. The twelve competing films include five world premieres and three U.S. premieres. The rest are Southern premieres. Several of the films have connections to Louisiana: Molly Green (one of the two directors of FOREV) is a New Orleans native; THE WHOLE GRITTY CITY is about marching bands in New Orleans; a significant portion of SEARCHING FOR BILL was filmed in Southern Louisiana; and Zack Godshall, a previous winner of the Louisiana Filmmaker of the Year award, is a Louisiana resident and his film profiles the coastal Louisiana town of Leeville.

The winner in each of the two categories will be determined by a three-person jury. Narrative features jurors include Cullen Conley, agent at ICM Partners (and former manager of the Feature Film Program at the Sundance Institute); Michael Gottwald, producer of the films Tchoupitoulas and the Oscar-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild; and Roya Rastegar, scholar and film programmer. Documentary features jurors include Donal Mosher, director of the award-winning films October Country and Off-Label; Sadie Tillery, director of programming at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival; and Debra Zimmerman, executive director of Women Make Movies.

The winning filmmaker in each category will receive a camera package from Panavision valued at $10,000.

NARRATIVE FEATURES IN COMPETITION

ABOARD THE CAROUSEL (dir. Kevin McMullin)
Promiscuous Daphne moves back home to babysit her teenage brother Vincent while mom is away. She crushes on Vincent’s shy art tutor, Alex, and decides to take him on as a project, giving him intimacy lessons. *World Premiere*

FOREV (dir. Molly Green and James Leffler)
Sophie and Pete are kind of friends, but mostly they’re just neighbors. On a whim, they become engaged—and then stranded in the middle of the desert. Forev is romantic comedy about how far you can go without saying what you mean. Southern Premiere.

THE REPUBLIC OF TWO (dir. Shaun Kosta)
A close examination of the high-stakes game of heterosexual cohabitation in Los Angeles. Tim wants to be a doctor and Caroline doesn’t quite know what she wants. They both know their love is real, but can that love endure a town full of possibilities and temptation? Southern Premiere.

SHADOW ZOMBIE (dir. Jorge Torres-Torres)
A lonely drug dealer finds peace in the Louisiana country when he transforms into “Shadow Zombie” by merely painting his face and snorting painkillers. With its hybrid doc/narrative approach, this is an existential horror film rooted in the tragedy of its characters. *World Premiere*

SKOOK (dir. Connor Hurley)
New York City fashion student Amy returns home to rural Pennsylvania and unexpectedly falls for the guy who made her life hell in high school. Caught off guard by the excitement of a new love, she starts to have flashbacks of the high school event that made her leave in the first place. *World Premiere*

YOU MAKE ME FEEL SO YOUNG (dir. Zach Weintraub)
When her boyfriend lands a job at a recently renovated arthouse theater, Justine relocates with him to a small, nameless town. Dropped suddenly into an unfamiliar place and stripped of all routine and distraction, she is left to sit quietly by and observe the early signs of her own deteriorating relationship. North American Premiere.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES IN COMPETITION

FOR I KNOW MY WEAKNESS (dir. John Dentino)
At the margins of America, a filmmaker helps an alcoholic vagabond return to her children, only to find that her secret is the mother of human nightmares. U.S. Premiere.

PURGATORIO (dir. Rodrigo Reyes)
Leaving politics aside, this provocative essay film takes a fresh look at the brutal beauty of the U.S./Mexico border and the people caught in its spell. Southern Premiere.

SEARCHING FOR BILL (dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen)
A Louisiana man has his car and money stolen by a con man called Bill. When the car is found in Detroit, he decides to take a roadtrip to track down the man who stole his car, a journey that eventually takes him from New Orleans to Detroit, Los Angeles, and the Mojave Desert. U.S. Premiere.

TOUGH BOND (dirs. Austin Peck and Anneliese Vandenberg)
Shot over three years, Tough Bond is the story of Kenya’s “Survivors”- a fiercely loyal tribe of children living together in an urban wilderness, huffing glue to endure the hell of street life. Southern Premiere.

WATER LIKE STONE (dir. Zack Godshall)
An impressionistic portrait of Leeville, Louisiana, a small fishing village in the midst of the disappearing wetlands along the Gulf Coast, Water Like Stone is a documentary about people living in a dying landscape. *World Premiere*

THE WHOLE GRITTY CITY (dir. Richard Barber)
This documentary plunges viewers into the world of three New Orleans marching bands, where mentors help guide kids past the lures and dangers of the streets, while passing on a powerful musical legacy. *World Premiere*
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San Francisco Film Society Selects Egyptian Filmmaker Mohamed Diab as Artist in Residence

Industry

Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Diab (CAIRO 678) has been selected for the San Francisco Film Society’s sixth Artist in Residence program, October 1 – 15. Diab’s schedule will include a screening of his debut feature film CAIRO 678, described as feminist drama exploring sexual harassment in Egypt.

In Cairo 678, three Cairene women from different backgrounds join together in uneasy solidarity to combat the sexual harassment that has impacted each of their lives. We begin on an overcrowded bus line, dreaded by Fayza as a daily site of humiliation and anguish. Responding to a self-defense talk by Seba, whose own assault has driven her marriage apart, Fayza fights back-and soon has a police detective searching for her amid public panic. Meanwhile, Nelly, an aspiring comic, faces pressure from her family to drop a lawsuit against her attacker. Mohamed Diab’s deftly braided narrative tells a gripping, timely social tale through its patchwork of interconnected lives and deeds. — Rob Avila, Global Film Initiative

Mohamed Diab was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 1977. Having migrated to Egypt, he studied commerce at Suez Canal University in Ismailia before pursuing film at the New York Film Academy. In 2011, Diab received a Webby Special Achievement Award for his role as a social media activist during the revolution in Egypt, for “embodying the spirit of the Internet and harnessing its power to bring freedom and democracy to [his] nation.” Prior to his directorial debut Cairo 678, he was the writer of four films (Real Dreams, The Island, The Replacement, and Congratulations), each of which enjoyed commercial success in Egypt.

http://youtu.be/COesFcvkXaE
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Milwaukee Film Festival Announces 2013 Lineup; Opens with German Film BREAK UP MAN

Milwaukee Film Festival

BREAK UP MAN (Schlussmacher)

The Milwaukee Film Festival which runs September 26 – October 10, 2013, announced the entire film line-up of 240 films – 103 features and 137 shorts – from 44 different countries. The festival opens with the North American premiere of the German film BREAK UP MAN (Schlussmacher). BREAK UP MAN tells the very funny tale of Paul Voigt, a charming and ambitious professional who works for a ‘relationship break-up’ agency. A master at delivering bad news to husbands and wives on behalf of partners lacking the courage to say ‘it’s all over’. Paul is on the verge of a big promotion and seems to be staring at nothing less than a fabulously successful future. That is until he meets Toto, a needy and neurotic client who decides to cling to cool-and-calm Paul for dear life. Before long it’s Paul who needs counseling as his work performance nosedives and his romance with stunner Natalie heads in a similar direction.

The complete 2013 Milwaukee Film Festival line-up:

SPOTLIGHT FILMS:

OPENING NIGHT FILM
Break Up Man (Schlussmacher)
(Germany / 2012 / Director: Matthias Schweighöfer)

FESTIVAL CENTERPIECE
Earth feat. live accompaniment from Altos
(Ukraine / 1930 / Director: Aleksandr Dovzhenko)

CLOSING NIGHT FILM
Blood Brother
(USA / 2012 / Director: Steve Hoover)

After Tiller
(USA / 2012 / Directors: Martha Shane, Lana Wilson)

The Angels’ Share
(United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Italy / 2012 / Director: Ken Loach)

August: Osage County
(USA / 2013 / Director: John Wells)

Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me
(USA / 2013 / Director: Chiemi Karasawa)

Free the Mind
(Denmark, Finland / 2012 / Director: Phie Ambo)

The History of Future Folk
(USA / 2012 / Director: J. Anderson Mitchell, Jeremy Kipp Walker)

SOMM
(USA / 2012 / Director: Jason Wise)

TRIBUTES

Notorious
(USA / 2009 / Director: George Tillman, Jr.)

The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete
(USA / 2013 / Director: George Tillman, Jr.)

Blow Out
(USA / 1981 / Director: Brian De Palma)

COMPETITION

12 O’Clock Boys
(USA / 2013 / Director: Lofty Nathan)

The Act of Killing
(Denmark, Norway, United Kingdom / 2012 / Director: Joshua Oppenheimer)

Beyond the Hills (Dupa Dealuri)
(Romania / 2012 / Director: Cristian Mungiu)

The Crash Reel
(USA / 2013 / Director: Lucy Walker)

Post Tenebras Lux
(Mexico, France, Germany, Netherlands / 2012 / Director: Carlos Reygadas)

Stories We Tell
(Canada / 2012 / Director: Sarah Polley)

Upstream Color
(USA / 2013 / Director: Shane Carruth)

War Witch (Rebelle)
(Canada / 2012 / Director: Kim Nguyen)
PASSPORT: GERMANY

Almanya, Welcome to Germany (Almanya – Willkommen in Deutschland)
(Germany / 2011 / Director: Yasemin Samdereli)

Hannah Arendt
(Germany / 2012 / Director: Margarethe von Trotta)

Lore
(Australia, Germany, United Kingdom / 2012 / Director: Cate Shortland)

Ludwig II
(Germany / 2012 / Directors: Marie Noëlle, Peter Sehr)

Oh Boy
(Germany / 2012 / Director: Jan Ole Gerster)

Oma & Bella
(Germany / 2012 / Director: Alexa Karolinski)

This Ain’t California
(Germany / 2012 / Director: Marten Persiel)

Wings of Desire
(Germany / 1987 / Director: Wim Wenders)

RATED K: FOR KIDS

The Land Before Time
(USA, Ireland / 1988 / Director: Don Bluth)

Taking Chances (Patatje Oorlog)
(Netherlands, Belgium / 2011 / Director: Nicole van Kilsdonk)

Wolf Children (Okami Kodomo No Ame To Yuki)
(Japan / 2012 / Director: Mamoru Hosoda)

Zarafa
(France, Belgium / 2012 / Directors: Rémi Bezançon, Jean-Christophe Lie)

Kids Shorts: Size Small

Aston’s Presents (Sweden / 2012 / Directors: Uzi Geffenblad, Lotta Geffenblad)

Choir Tour (Latvia / 2012 / Director: Edmunds Jansons)

Chopin’s Drawings (USA / 2011 / Director: Dorota Kobiela)

Eskimal (Mexico / 2011 / Director: Homero Ramirez Tena)

How Shammies Guessed (Latvia / 2012 / Director: Edmunds Jansons)

Kitten’s First Full Moon (USA / 2011 / Director: Gary McGivney)

Knuffle Bunny Free (USA / 2012 / Director: Karen Villarreal)

The Little Bird and the Leaf (Switzerland / 2012 / Director: Lena Von Döhren)

Mira’s Night (USA / 2011 / Director: Elyse Kelly)

A Tangled Tale (USA / 2013 / Director: Corrie Francis Parks)

Kids Shorts: Size Medium

Big Mouth (Canada / 2012 / Director: Andrea Dorfman)

Boris the Rat Dresses Warmly (Finland / 2012 / Directors: Kaisa Penttilä, Leena Jääskeläinen)

Chinti (Russia / 2012 / Director: Natalia Mirzoyan)

Colosse – A Wood Tale (USA / 2012 / Director: Yves Geleyn)

The Fox and the Chickadee (Canada / 2012 / Director: Evan Derushie)

Frog Weather (Germany / 2011 / Director: Pauline Kortmann)

Jonah and the Crab (USA / 2012 / Director: Laurel Cohen)

My First Spellbook (Scotland / 2011 / Director: Gavin Laing)

Paulie (USA / 2012 / Director: Andrew Nackman)

Shame and Glasses (Italy / 2013 / Director: Alessandro Riconda)

Wing (Denmark / 2011 / Directors: Asger Grevil, Mette Vestergaard Madsen)

Kids Shorts: Size Large

Bot (USA / 2010 / Director: Mustafa Lazkani)

Eyes on the Stars (USA / 2012 / Director: The Rauch Brothers)

A Girl Named Elastika (Canada / 2012 / Director: Guillaume Blanchet)

High Noon (Venezuela / 2013 / Director: Ivan Mazza)

I’m Going to Mum’s (New Zealand / 2012 / Director: Lauren Jackson)

Krake (Germany / 2012 / Director: Regina Welker)

The Maiden and the Princess (USA / 2011 / Director: Ali Scher)

Monster, Me (USA / 2013 / Director: Milt Klingensmith)

Song of the Spindle (USA / 2011 / Director: Drew Christie)

Sounds for Mazin (Netherlands / 2012 / Director: Ingrid Kamerling)

Turning a Corner (USA / 2012 / Director: David B. Levy)

CREAM CITY CINEMA

Billy Club
(USA / 2013 / Directors: Drew Rosas, Nick Sommer)

Date America
(USA / 2012 / Directors: Bob Murray, Amy Neuenschwander)

The Milwaukee Show

Before You (USA / 2013 / Director: Michael T. Vollmann)

Begong Ava, Begong Hele (USA / 2013 / Director: Heather Hass)

Cinders (USA / 2013 / Director: Andrew Gralton)

The Glitch (USA / 2013 / Director: Zijian Yan)

I Am (USA / 2013 / Director: Karim Raoul)

Love You Still (USA / 2013 / Director: Michael Viers)

Margaret Hue Would Like To Go To Mars. (USA / 2013 / Director: Anna Sampers)

Pluto and the Vessel (USA / 2013 / Director: Harrison Browning)

The Quiet City (USA / 2013 / Director: Brian McGuire)

Spectacle! (USA / 2013 / Directors: Andrew Swant, WC Tank, Erik Ljung, Kurt Raether, Carol Brandt)

USPS (USA / 2013 / Director: Jessica Farrell)

Within A Stone’s Throw (USA / 2013 / Director: Cecelia Condit)

The Milwaukee Youth Show

Alexander Copenhagen and the Key of Destiny (USA / 2012 / Director: Thomas Fleischmann)

Birth of a Dream (USA / 2013 / Director: Megan Sai Dogra)

Copycat (USA / 2013 / Director: Hudson Miller)

#DiseasesSpreadLikeRumors (USA / 2012 / Directors: Participants in Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee Programs)

# DontBeAnOffenderToThoseWhoLove TheSameGender (USA / 2012 / Directors: Participants in Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee Programs)

Flowers in Bloom (USA / 2013 / Director: Alejandra Salinas)

# ForgetTheHumpIfYouDontWantTheB ump (USA / 2012 / Directors: Participants in Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee Programs)

Generation Empowered: The Dream is Now (USA / 2013 / Director: LaTonya Matlock)

How Geoffrey Broke His Glasses (USA / 2012 / Director: Jamie Mercado)

In The Mind (USA / 2013 / Director: Brian Mercado)

The Journey Home (USA / 2013 / Directors: Elizabeth Zingsheim, Mara Matovich)

Night of the Beanie Babies (USA / 2013 / Directors: Josh Frank, Ryan Coenen)

Pancakes (USA / 2013 / Director: Lauren Markey, Brian Ore)
Phone Wars (USA / 2012 / Director: Holly Kraemer, Kevin Salgado)

Poppin’ (USA / 2013 / Directors: Lauren Markey, Brian Ore)

Spider Dog (USA / 2013 / Directors: Gabriella Avila, Alexia Justo)
Sun Up,Sun Down (USA / 2013 / Director: Felicia McGowan)

Toytonic (USA / 2013 / Directors: Students from Audubon Technology and Communication Center)

Penelope
(USA / 2013 / Director: Brad Lichtenstein)

Sign Painters
(USA / 2013 / Directors: Faythe Levine, Sam Macon)

When the King Tilts
(USA / 2013 / Director: Drew Britton)

SOUND VISION

Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker
(USA / 2013 / Director: Lily Keber)

Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me
(USA / 2012 / Director: Drew DeNicola)

Brothers Hypnotic
(USA / 2013 / Director: Reuben Atlas)

Enzo Avitabile Music Life
(Italy / 2012 / Director: Jonathan Demme)

The Girls in the Band
(USA / 2011 / Director: Judy Chaikin)

Muscle Shoals
(USA / 2012 / Director: Greg “Freddy” Camalier)

Narco Cultura
(USA / 2012 / Director: Shaul Schwarz)

Stop Making Sense
(USA / 1984 / Director: Jonathan Demme)

CINEMA HOOLIGANTE

100 Bloody Acres
(Australia / 2012 / Directors: Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes)

2001: A Space Odyssey
(USA, United Kingdom / 1968 / Director: Stanley Kubrick)

Enter the Dragon
(USA, Hong Kong / 1973 / Director: Robert Clouse)

Here Comes the Devil
(Mexico / 2012 / Director: Adrián García Bogliano)

The Rambler
(USA / 2013 / Director: Calvin Lee Reeder)

Sightseers
(United Kingdom / 2012 / Director: Ben Wheatley)

Vanishing Waves
(Lithuania, France, Belgium / 2012 / Director: Kristina Buožyt)

We Are What We Are
(USA / 2013 / Director: Jim Mickle)

SHORTER IS BETTER

Shorts: The Best Damn F*#@ing Midnight Program Ever. Sh*t.

Total running time: 83 min

The Apocalypse (USA / 2012 / Director: Andrew Zuchero)

The Cub (USA / 2012 / Director: Riley Stearns)

Flytopia (United Kingdom / 2012 / Director: Karni Arieli, Saul Freed)

Hell No (USA / 2013 / Director: Joe Nicolosi)

It’s Not You, It’s Me (USA / 2012 / Director: Matt Spicer)

Oh Sheep! (Germany / 2012 / Director: Gottfried Mentor)

Perfect Drug (Belgium / 2012 / Director: Toon Aerts)

Sea Pig (USA / 2013 / Directors: Andrew Gilchrist, Jesse Allen)

Swarming (Kuhina) (Finland / 2011 / Director: Joni Männistö)

Shorts: Date Night

Total running time: 95 min

The Bird Spider (La Migala) (Spain / 2011 / Director: Jaime Dezcallar)

CRUSH 472 (United Kingdom / 2013 / Director: Jess Scott-Hunter)

The Date (Treffit) (Finland / 2012 / Director: Jenni Toivoniemi)

Ellen Is Leaving (New Zealand / 2012 / Director: Michelle Savill)

Routine (Rutina) (Spain / 2012 / Director: Ana Ortiz)

Taboulé (Spain / 2011 / Director: Richard García)

Ten Thousand Days (New Zealand / 2012 / Director: Michael Duignan)

Tram (France, Czech Republic / 2012 / Director: Michaela Pavlátová)

Undress Me (Ta Av Mig) (Sweden / 2013 / Director: Victor Lindgren)

Shorts: Let’s Get Animated

Total running time: 82 min

Bird Food (Ireland / 2012 / Director: Richard Keane)

Boles (Germany / 2013 / Director: Spela Cadez)

I Am Tom Moody (United Kingdom / 2012 / Director: Ainslie Henderson)

Irish Folk Furniture (Ireland / 2012 / Director: Tony Donoghue)

Jonah (Tanzania, United Kingdom / 2012 / Director: Kibwe Tavares)

Marcel, King of Tervuren (USA / 2012 / Director: Tom Schroeder)

Oh Willy… (Belgium, France, Netherlands / 2012 / Directors: Marc James Roels, Emma De Swaef)

Palmipedarium (France / 2012 / Director: Jérémy Clapin)

Shorts: …Make Lemonade

Total running time: 88 min

All Souls’ Day (Swieto Zmarlych) (Poland / 2012 / Director: Aleksandra Terpińska)

Fear of Flying (Ireland / 2012 / Director: Conor Finnegan)

Keys. Wallet. Phone. (Germany / 2012 / Director: Juliet Lashinsky-Revene)

Summer Vacation (Hofesh Gadol) (Israel / 2012 / Directors: Sharon Maymon, Tal Granit)

Walking the Dogs (United Kingdom / 2012 / Director: Jeremy Brock)

Shorts: Modern Families

Total running time: 84 min

Anna and Jerome (France / 2012 / Director: Melanie Delloye)

Do I Have to Take Care of Everything? (Pitaako mun Kaikki Hoitaa?) (Finland / 2011 / Director: Selma Vihunen)

Dotty (New Zealand / 2012 / Directors: Mick Andrews, Brett O’Gorman)

F**k the Parents (USA / 2012 / Director: Ethan Kuperberg)

Grandpa and Me and a Helicopter to Heaven (Morfar och jag och helikoptern till himlen) (Sweden / 2013 / Directors: Asa Blanck, Johan Palmgren)

Mobile Homes (USA, France / 2013 / Director: Vladimir de Fontenay)

Mud Crab (Australia / 2012 / Directors: Igor Coric, Sheldon Lieberman)

My Favorite Picture of You (USA / 2013 / Directors: Dan Lindsay, T.J. Martin)

Shorts: Obsession

Total running time: 89 min

Dumpy Goes to the Big Smoke (Australia / 2012 / Director: Mirrah Foulkes)

Eating Lunch (Äta Lunch) (Sweden / 2012 / Director: Sanna Lenken)

Georgena Terry (USA / 2012 / Director: Amanda Zackem)

GUN (USA / 2012 / Director: Spencer Gillis)

Peach Juice (Canada / 2012 / Directors: Callum Paterson, Nathan Gilliss, Brian Lye)

The Roper (USA / 2012 / Directors: Ewan McNicol, Anna Sandilands)

The Tuner (O Afinador) (Brazil / 2012 / Directors: Fernando Camargo, Matheus Parizi)

Woody (Australia / 2013 / Director: Stuart Bowen)

Shorts: Out of This World

Total running time: 91 min

The Captain (Australia, USA / 2013 / Directors: Nash Edgerton, Spencer Susser)

Catnip: Egress to Oblivion? (USA / 2012 / Director: Jason Willis)

Delicacy (USA / 2012 / Director: Jason Mann)

Dust (United Kingdom / 2013 / Directors: Ben Ockrent, Jake Russell)

Edmond Was a Donkey (Edmond Était un Âne) (Canada, France / 2012 / Director: Franck Dion)

Hotel (Spain / 2012 / Director: Jose Luis Aleman)

Record/Play (United Kingdom, Bosnia / 2012 / Director: Jesse Atlas)

Shelved (New Zealand / 2011 / Director: James Cunningham)

Ufologist (USA / 2012 / Directors: Ewan McNicol, Anna Sandilands)

Shorts: Stranger Than Fiction

Total running time: 102 min

Eddie Adams: Saigon ‘68 (USA / 2012 / Director: Douglas Sloan)

The Flogsta Roar (Flogstavrålet) (Sweden / 2013 / Director: Johan Palmgren)

Mr. Christmas (USA / 2012 / Director: Nick Palmer)

Pouters (United Kingdom / 2012 / Director: Paul Fegan)

Unravel (United Kingdom, India / 2012 / Director: Meghna Gupta)

Vladimir Putin In Deep Concentration (USA / 2013 / Directors: Dana O’Keefe, Sasha Kliment)

We Will Live Again (USA / 2013 / Directors: Joshua Koury, Myles Kane)

DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL FAVORITES

American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs
(USA / 2013 / Director: Grace Lee)

Band of Sisters
(USA / 2012 / Director: Mary Fishman)

Becoming Traviata
(France / 2012 / Director: Philippe Béziat)

Bound by Flesh
(USA / 2012 / Director: Leslie Zemeckis)

Breathing Earth
(Germany, United Kingdom / 2012 / Director: Thomas Riedelsheimer)

Citizen Koch
(USA / 2012 / Directors: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin)

Fatal Assistance (Assistance Mortelle)
(France, Haiti, USA, Belgium / 2013 / Director: Raoul Peck)

God Loves Uganda
(USA / 2013 / Director: Roger Ross Williams)

Google and the World Brain
(Spain, United Kingdom / 2013 / Director: Ben Lewis)

If You Build It
(USA / 2013 / Director: Patrick Creadon)

Informant
(USA / 2012 / Director: Jamie Meltzer)

The Institute
(USA / 2012 / Director: Spencer McCall)

Maidentrip
(USA / 2013 / Director: Jillian Schlesinger)

More Than Honey
(Germany / 2012 / Director: Markus Imhoof)

Mussels in Love
(Netherlands, Belgium / 2012 / Director: Willemiek Kluijfhout)

Pandora’s Promise
(USA / 2013 / Director: Robert Stone)

The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology
(United Kingdom, Ireland / 2012 / Director: Sophie Fiennes)

Remote Area Medical
(USA / 2013 / Directors: Jeff Reichert, Farihah Zaman)

Rising From Ashes
(USA, Rwanda, United Kingdom, South Africa / 2012 / Director: T.C. Johnstone)

Spinning Plates
(USA / 2012 / Director: Joseph Levy)

Unhung Hero
(USA / 2013 / Director: Brian Spitz)

Valentine Road
(USA / 2012 / Director: Marta Cunningham)

When I Walk
(USA, Canada / 2013 / Director: Jason DaSilva)

Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington
(USA / 2012 / Director: Sebastian Junger)

FICTION FESTIVAL FAVORITES

2+2 (Dos Más Dos)
(Argentina / 2013 / Director: Diego Kaplan)

Aayna Ka Bayna
(India / 2012 / Director: Samit Kakkad)

The Almost Man
(Norway / 2012 / Director: Martin Lund)

Blancanieves
(Spain, France / 2012 / Director: Pablo Berger)

The Broken Circle Breakdown
(Belgium, Netherlands / 2012 / Director: Felix van Groeningen)

Closed Curtain (Pardé)
(Iran / 2013 / Directors: Jafar Panahi, Kamboziya Partovi)

Drug War (Du Zhan)
(Hong Kong / 2012 / Director: Johnnie To)

Fanie Fourie’s Lobola
(South Africa / 2013 / Director: Henk Pretorius)

Finding Mr. Right
(China, Hong Kong / 2013 / Director: Xue Xiaolu)

A Hijacking (Kapringen)
(Denmark / 2012 / Director: Tobias Lindholm)

House With a Turret (Dom S Bashenkoy)
(Ukraine / 2012 / Director: Eva Neymann)

In The House (Dans La Maison)
(France / 2012 / Director: François Ozon)

Key of Life (Kagidorobou No Method)
(Japan / 2012 / Director: Kenji Uchida)

Laurence Anyways
(Canada / 2012 / Director: Xavier Dolan)

Northwest (Nordvest)
(Denmark / 2013 / Director: Michael Noer)

Once Upon a Time Veronica
(Brazil, France / 2012 / Director: Marcelo Gomes)

Paradise: Hope (Paradies: Hoffnung)
(Germany / 2013 / Director: Ulrich Seidl)

Picture Day
(Canada / 2012 / Director: Kate Melville)

The Pirogue (La Pirogue)
(France, Senegal / 2012 / Director: Moussa Touré)

Reality
(Italy, France / 2012 / Director: Matteo Garrone)

Something in the Air (Après mai)
(France / 2012 / Director: Olivier Assayas)

Tanta Agua
(Uruguay, Mexico, Netherlands, Germany / 2013 / Directors: Ana Guevara, Leticia Jorge)

This is Martin Bonner
(USA / 2013 / Director: Chad Hartigan)

Zaytoun
(United Kingdom, Israel, France / 2012 / Director: Eran Riklis)
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Helsinki International Film Festival Love & Anarchy all Set for 2013; Announces Full Program and Guests

Helsinki International Film Festival

Chan-wook Park’s STOKER, which stars Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska

Finland’s largest film festival, Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy, is scheduled to run for the 26th time from September 19th to 29th, 2013. This year the festival showcases a record number of films – 339 in total. For the first time in its history, HIFF also shows films in Espoo, where the nominees for the Nordic Council Film Prize will be screened in Kino Tapiola.

Throughout its history, HIFF has strived to present new trends in the international film arena. The festival focuses on films that have stirred discussion and invites interesting filmmakers, such as Joshua Oppenheimer , who has directed one of the most talked-about documentaries of the year. Mr. Oppenheimer will be present at the screening of his film THE ACT OF KILLING on Friday, September 6th at Maxim. Another highly anticipated guest is Tom Berninger , who has charmed festival audiences around the world with his first documentary MISTAKEN FOR STRANGERS. The film, which opened Tribeca Film Festival, shows Berninger following his older brother’s band The National on tour, trying to make a documentary about them. In the end, the film tells more about finding one’s own place in the shadow of a successful family member. The National will give a concert in Helsinki October 31st.

Yuri Bykov from Russia comes to the festival with no less than two movies; THE MAJOR (Maior) and TO LIVE (Zhit ). The festival is also visited by director Srdan Golubović and screenwriter Srdjan Koljević , whose film CIRCLES is part of the BALKANIZE! series. Circles , which studies the results of the war in former Yugoslavia, has won awards at the international film festivals in Sundance and Berlin.

Another guest at this year’s festival is Dag Johan Haugerud , whose feature debut I BELONG (Som du ser meg ) is Norway’s nominee for the Nordic Council Film Prize. I Belong was awarded Norway’s most important film price for best director, best film and best female lead. HIFF also welcomes director Erik Skjoldbjærg and producer Christian Fredrik Martin , whose oil-drilling thriller PIONEER will premiere at Toronto International Film Festival.

Surprises at the table and on the programme Warwick Ross , whose wine documentary RED OBSESSION will be released in Finnish theatres in November, comes to Helsinki to take part in a special culinary screening of his film. The special screening culminates in a film dinner with a wine theme at Restaurant Sunn. The themes of the other special screenings of the culinary series Haute Cuisine are mussels (MUSSELS IN LOVE) and Spanish fine dining (TASTING MENU).

A new addition to the programme is Chan-wook Park’s STOKER, which stars Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska. Another new addition is Danny Boyle’s TRANCE, a psychological thriller that plays out in the art world. Even though the festival catalogue and the screening schedule are published on September 6th, there will be surprise-fields in the schedule where films are published later.

Virtual guests discuss their short films at HIFF’s new online festival The festival showcases a large selection of short films, a total of 163 works, which is more than ever before in HIFF’s history. The short film series offers a possibility to get to know new Finnish and Nordic filmmakers in particular. For the first time, a selection of the short films will also be shown at HIFF’s new online festival. Through the online festival Love & Anarchy can provide film experiences to a global audience.

via press release
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REVIEW: My Father and The Man in Black

Film Reviews

With no disrespect intended to any ladies reading this, it’s been said that no story carries the emotional impact of a story about the relationship between a father and his son. From the days of the Bible and mythology, countless stories have used that relationship as a basis for emotional conflict, from fantasy films like Star Wars and Field of Dreams to biographical films like Walk the Line. Indeed, it is because of that last film that the documentary MY FATHER AND THE MAN IN BLACK exists.

This documentary is about Saul Holiff, who served as Johnny Cash’s manager from 1960 to 1973. Saul Holiff, who committed suicide several years ago because he was suffering from a terminal illness, had an estranged relationship with his son Jonathan Holiff – Jonathan confesses, “I knew more about my father from his obituary than from the man himself.” Shortly before the release of the successful Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, Jonathan quit his unsatisfying job as a successful Hollywood agent and moved back in with his mother. While living with her they were bombarded with calls from Cash fans looking for memorabilia in the wake of Cash’s resurgence in popularity. Jonathan’s mother revealed to him that his father had left a storage locker filled with a treasure trove of information and mementos regarding his time managing Cash. This documentary chronicles Jonathan’s discovery of who his father really was through what he finds in the locker.

Jonathan Holiff has a great story to tell about this relationship to his father and his father’s relationship to Johnny Cash. However — and I know this might sound odd — I don’t think Jonathan Holiff was the right filmmaker to tell this story. While Jonathan was an extremely successful Hollywood agent and television producer, that doesn’t necessarily translate to filmmaking skill. Since Jonathan is undergoing a very personal journey with this documentary it makes sense that he serves writer, director, and producer of the film, but several questionable creative decisions really hurt the final product.

For instance, perhaps my least favorite technique in documentaries is shooting narrative-style recreations of true events. It not only seems false to me, but it begs the question of why the filmmakers didn’t choose one style or the other. It appears that Holiff has spent a lot of money shooting narrative recreations of his father’s interactions with Cash with lookalike actors in their places. But why? Saul Holiff’s story is fascinating on its own and is told through incredible archival photos, film clips, and, most of all, audio recordings. These are historical documents that uncover untold aspects of the life of one of country music’s most iconic figures (or two if you count Cash’s wife June Carter). I would have liked to have seen more authenticity and less awkward recreations.

Regardless of that poor choice in technique, Holiff discovers deep emotional connections and parallels with the father he previously wanted nothing to do with, and learns that his father’s chief flaw was trying to manage his family life like he managed Cash.

Though MY FATHER AND THE MAN IN BLACK has won several awards and generally positive reviews at numerous film festivals, I can’t help but think it would have been a much better documentary if it took a different creative direction. Cash fans will enjoy it more than most (even if he doesn’t get the most glowing portrayal), but others will probably want to pass.

http://youtu.be/jtovAxxPo2Q

RATING 2 out of 5 : See it … At Your Own Risk
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